Myanmar’s Cross-Border Trade with China Halted by Clashes
The Muse Border Gate on the Myanmar side / The Irrawaddy
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By AUNG THIHA 19 August 2019
YANGON—Myanmar’s border trade with China through Muse in northern
Shan State has come to a complete halt due to the destruction of bridges by
rebel forces on the Mandalay-Muse Road, and ongoing clashes.
Through the Muse border trade zone, Myanmar mainly exports rice,
corn, sugar, other agricultural produce and marine products, and imports building
materials, machinery, electronics and other raw materials from China. The total
value of bilateral trade shipped through Muse is around US$3 million (4.57
billion kyats) per day, according to the Commerce Ministry.
Trade via Muse has completely halted as the route to the border has
become inaccessible due to ongoing clashes. Chinese traders are staying away
from the town, said U Aung Kyaw Moe, chief executive officer of Muse-based
public company North Eastern Gate.
“The road was off limits till this morning due to security
concerns. Yesterday, all vehicles had to return [to their points of origin].
So, both commercial and passenger transport has been halted,” he said.
The border trade dried up after clashes between the Myanmar
military and a joint rebel force of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance
Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army on Aug. 15.
Though the Construction Ministry is currently repairing the bridges
destroyed by rebel forces, it will still be difficult to resume trade given the
lack of regional security, traders said.
“The halt in trade doesn’t just affect exports, it also poses
difficulties for all those involved in [trade] circles. It also affects
associated businesses like [owners and drivers of] cargo trucks and restaurants.
If the road is closed for a week, then commodity prices will also increase in
parts of the country to the south,” said U Aung Kyaw Moe.
Myanmar is not currently exporting seasonal fruits to China, but
producers of value-added fishery products, to whom China has granted official
permission to import from Myanmar, are suffering heavy losses, said U Soe Than,
who exports eels to China.
“Yesterday, 10 trucks carrying eels bound for China were stuck in
Kutkai, and the eels had to be given away or dumped there. And eel stocks in
Mandalay and Yangon will have to be sold in the domestic market as they can’t
be exported to China,” he said.
According to U Soe Than, a truckload of eels is worth around 26
million kyats.
“Rice exports to China stalled before the clashes broke out. The
Myanmar government is working to facilitate official exports of rice to China
on a government-to-government basis, but since this [the clashes] happened, the
whole process has stalled,” said Mandalay-based rice merchant U Tin Hlaing Win.
Myanmar’s rice is mainly exported to China through border trade,
and though the Myanmar government allows official exports of rice to China,
Chinese authorities consider rice imports from Myanmar illegal. Whenever there
is a crackdown on illegal rice imports, Myanmar’s rice trade with China stalls.
But even under such circumstances, at least 50,000 bags of rice are
exported per day through illegal channels, said U Tin Hlaing Win. “But now,
everything has stalled,” he said.
Rice exported from Myanmar to China sells for 100 yuan (21,619
kyats) per bag.
“Previous road closures were not this bad. And roads could be used
for certain hours during the day. But now, the road to Naung Cho and Lashio is
closed. This has severely disrupted trade,” said a Muse-based trader on
condition of anonymity.
From Oct. 1, 2018 to Aug. 9, 2019, Myanmar’s exports to China
through the Muse border trade zone earned a total of $2.75 billion, and imports
were worth $1.53 billion, taking the combined value of trade to $4.28 billion,
according to the Commerce Ministry.
Pakistan trade balance improves by
19pc
Country got
immediate market access on 313 items of prime export interest which cover over
$8.7b of global exports
APP
ISLAMABAD
- Pakistan trade balance has improved by 19 percent, with
trade deficit also declining from $ 37.6 billion to $30.6 billion in the last
one year. The country’s exports remained stable at around $23 billion and
exports were also protected from external shocks from regional geo-political
uncertainty in the wake of Pulwama incident, depreciation of major currencies
and trade war between two major markets United States and China, the one-year
performance report shared by Establishment Division said.
The exports sustained through policy
interventions, extension of PM’s Export Enhancement Package for three years,
relief to 5 major export sectors in energy prices, exchange rate
rationalisation, and import tariff concession on 422 raw materials of
export-oriented industries.
The country’s imports reduced from $60.8
billion to $ 53.8 billion by 12 percent saving of $7 billion.
According to the reports, regulatory duty
imposed on non-essential imported items that include Sanitary and Phytosanitary
restrictions imposed on imported food items, labelling conditions and mandatory
halal certification imposed on imported edible products, Procedure for import
of used cars reformed to check misuse of the import policy, Rationalisation of
exchange rate discouraged imports by increasing price Commerce Division.
The government has also priorities the market
excess in different potential markets of the world including China and Middle
East.
In the second Phase of Pakistan China Free
Trade Agreement (PCFTA-II) concluded in May, 2018. The Pakistan had got
immediate market access on 313 items of prime export interest which cover over
$8.7 billion of global exports and $64 billion worth of Chinese imports
(approx. 90 percent). China allowed duty-free market access to Pakistani
textiles and food items including yarn, sugar and rice worth $1 billion.
Pakistan had got unilateral market access from
Indonesia on 20 products as appendage to Pakistan-Indonesia Preferential Trade
Agreement (PTA).
According to the reports, as the result of
Prime Minster Imran Khan’s visit to Qatar in January 2019, 8-year old ban on
Pakistani Basmati rice was lifted in Qatar. Tender for procurement of 4,000
tons of Pakistani basmati rice was issued in July 2019. Pakistan has also
obtained 500,000 MT of rice export order from Iran.
The government has also revived of technical
level talks with South Korea for negotiation of Free Trade Agreement (FTA),
which had been stalled since 2017.
The government also provided relief to dates
farmers by clearance of stuck-up inventories of dried dates, by export to
nontraditional. The government has also initiated the legal and Policy reforms
in Ministry of commerce for increasing the country’s exports.
National Tariff Policy also prepared as part of
100-day agenda to transform import tariffs from revenue generation tool to
trade policy instrument, report added. The import tariffs on 1635 raw
materials removed in budget 2019-20.
Exporters provided liquidity relief by
simplifying procedures for disbursement of sales tax refunds and claims under
PM’s Export Package.
The country’s exporters insulated from the
increase in gas and electricity prices despite price hike in international
market.
Floods
destroy over 45,000 acres of paddy fields in Bago
Farmlands were submerged in Bago
Region
PUBLISHED 15
AUGUST 2019
TAUNGGOO- More than 45,000 acres of
paddy fields were submerged due to rising water levels at Sittoung and Shwegyin
Rivers in Bago Region during the first week of August, according to the
Agricultural Department in Bago Region.
“The flash floods destroyed over
40,000 acres of monsoon paddy fields in 10 townships of Bago Region. About
47,000 acres of paddy fields were lost. The water level already receded. So,
there is a little damage. Shwegyin Township experienced the worst situation and
flood destroyed about 9,000 acres of paddy in Shwegyin. Paddies are being
re-grown in the flood-hit paddy field. We, the Agriculture Department, can’t
support it. But, we have reserve paddy. If there will be worst situation, we
are going to distribute the reserve paddy,” said San San Oo, Assistant Director
from Agricultural Department in Bago Region.
Since the beginning of August 5th,
the water levels of Sittoung and Shwegyin Rivers exceeded its danger marks in
eastern Bago Region. Totaling 45,722 acres of monsoon paddy fields in 10
Townships of Bago region had been damaged by floods. The authorities
temporarily closed about 100 schools and evacuated nearly 20,000 flood victims
from Shwegyin, Madauk, Nyaunglapin, Bago, Oaktwin and Kyaukgyi Townships, Bago
Region.
That’s
why the Bago Region Government Committee and the Union Government had already
provided totaling 14,000 buckets of paddy seeds to the flood-hit areas in Bago
Region
Govt issues more rice import permits to
traders
August 19, 2019
Sacks of imported rice are delivered to a rice seller at San
Andres district in Manila in this BusinessMirror file photo.
The Bureau of Plant Industry
(BPI) granted 2,294 permits to 208 private entities that sought to import 2.041
million metric tons (MMT) of milled rice since March, based on the latest data
from the agency.
Figures from the BPI, an attached
agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) indicated that cooperatives,
traders and institutions applied for sanitary and phytosanitary import
clearances (SPS-IC) from March 5 to July 30.
In July alone, the BPI issued 776
SPS-IC for the purchase of 562,332.8 MT of rice from Myanmar, Spain, Thailand
and Vietnam.
Among those applying for import
permits from March to July, the agency’s records indicated that Arvin
International Marketing Inc. accounted for the biggest volume at 72,018.6 MT.
Puregold Price Club Inc., the
grocery-chain operator owned by businessman Lucio Co, was among the top 5
import applicants during the period with a cumulative volume of 55,585 MT.
A total of 173 eligible importers
used 1,041 SPS-ICs and brought in 930,031.888 MT of rice as of end-July. The
imports were sourced from Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand and
Vietnam.
The BPI was mandated to
facilitate private-sector importation by issuing SPS-ICs once Republic Act (RA)
11203, which eased the restrictions on imports, took effect on March 5.
Under the new trade regime,
private entities must only secure an SPS-IC from the BPI prior to importing
rice. This is because RA 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law, removed
the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to regulate the local rice market
and issue import licenses.
The BPI is mandated to act on
every application to secure an import permit within seven days. Failure to do
so would mean automatic approval of the application.
The entry of cheaper imports was
tagged as the single biggest reason behind the plunge in domestic palay prices.
Planters have already lost some P40 billion, as traders slashed their
quotations for local palay, according to the Federation of Free Farmers.
The average farm-gate price of
unhusked rice fell to P17.85 per kilogram in end-June, the lowest in
two-and-a-half years, as rice imports surged past 1.3 MMT, data from the
Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
The United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) said in a report that the country’s rice imports this year
will rise by 20 percent to a record high of 3 MMT, making the Philippines one
of the world’s top buyers of the staple.
The USDA also said purchases of
imported rice rose after the government removed the quantitative restriction on
rice with the implementation of RA 11203.
4362
hectares of paddy destroyed due to drought
Written by Staff Writer
15 Aug, 2019 | 8:58 AM
Colombo (News
1st): The Department of Agriculture states that 4362 hectares of paddy in the
Yala season have been destroyed due to the drought. The Chief Meteorologist in
the Department Dr Ranjith Punyawardana stated that over 500,000 hectares of
paddy have been cultivated under 72 major reservoirs.
In addition,
68,735 hectares of paddy and 6468 hectares of additional crops have been
cultivated with water obtained from 272 central reservoirs. Punyawardana added
that the harvesting of Yala season has commenced.
He said that
due to the lack of adequate water supply, the commencement of cultivation in
the next Maha season is at risk.
Millers to supply rice
at reduced price to TTD
TIRUMALA, AUGUST
18, 2019 00:53 IST
Move will help the administration
save ₹60 lakh in
three months
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams
(TTD) Special Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy managed to prevail upon rice millers to
supply fine quality of rice to the temple at a reduced price.
At a meeting with leaders of
several rice miller associations on Saturday, Mr. Dharma Reddy successfully
persuaded them to supply rice at ₹37 per kg, as against the existing price of ₹38, for a period of three months.
The reduction in price of ₹1 per kg of rice is expected to
help the TTD save an amount of about ₹60 lakh in the three-month period.
The rice supplied by the millers
is used by TTD in the making of anna prasadams at the hill temple as well as in
the cooking of free meals under its Nitya Annadanam scheme. About 1,60,000
pilgrims are fed under the scheme, for which the monthly requirement of rice is
750 tonnes.
This apart, about six to eight
tonnes of vegetables are required by TTD to meet its daily requirements in the
Annadanam scheme.
Detailing the merits of the
scheme, Mr. Dharma Reddy urged the millers to supply some quantity of rice free
of cost to which they readily agreed and assured him a supply of 275 quintals
of rice as a goodwill gesture.
Goodwill gesture
Chairman and General Secretary of
All India Rice Millers Association Gummadi Venkateswara Rao and Mohan Rao said
that they would discuss the issue of supplying some free rice to TTD on a
regular basis with the leaders of various district associations and contribute
their bit for the flourishing of the Nitya Annadanam scheme.
He later held a meeting with potu
workers at the Vaibhavotsava mandapam and assured to resolve their problems in
a phased manner.
Siddaramaiah warns of protests if rice quantity is cut under
Anna Bhagya scheme
Claiming that there was a
proposal to cut down the quantity of rice given under the pro-poor scheme,
Siddaramaiah wanted the state government not to tamper with it.
Senior Congress leader
Siddaramaiah on August 17 warned of protests by his party if the BJP-led
government in Karnataka meddled with the 'Anna Bhagya scheme of offering free
rice to the poor.
Claiming that there was a
proposal to cut down the quantity of rice given under the pro-poor scheme, he
wanted the state government not to tamper with it.
"Poor people will not
tolerate this move. Our party will also protest against this decision. We will
fight against it inside and outside the assembly," the former Chief
Minister said. ".. I learnt that the amount of rice given under Anna
Bhagya scheme will be curtailed and funds will be diverted to the Prime
Minister Kisan Samman Scheme... This decision is anti-poor," Siddaramaiah
told reporters here.
In 2013, the "Anna
Bhagya" scheme was unveiled by then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Its an
ambitious initiative to supply 30 kg of rice at Re one to nearly one crore poor
families across the state.
Slamming the BJP government for
not releasing funds for the Indira Canteens in Bengaluru, the former Chief
Minister said, "I have learnt that the government is not providing funds
for the Indira Canteen, which is around Rs 200 crore per annum." "The
state government wants BBMP to run it, which is not good. The state should fund
it," he said.
Earlier, the BJP government had
hinted that it would review the Anna Bhagya scheme to check its misuse.
Pointing out that 1.12 crore families are covered under AnnaBhagya scheme,
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had said on August 2 that there was large scale
"misuse" of this scheme though only the needy should avail the
benefit of it.
"According to my estimate in
each district there are over a lakh of them who are misusing it, which has to
be stopped to benefit the poor. Because we are purchasing the rice at a market
price and distributing, we are paying Rs 32-33 per kg," the chief minister
had said.
Yediyurapa
had also said the officials would survey the beneficiaries.
Kharif Acreage
Down 4%, Rice Area Lower By 11%
Capital Market Last
Updated at August 19, 2019 12:50 IST
According to data released by the
Agriculture Ministry, the total sown area of kharif crops stood at 926 lakh
hectares (lh) as on 16th August 2019 compared to 966 lh covered in the
corresponding week last year, recording a slide of 4.14% on year. The area
under major crop rice was 301 lh, down around 11% on last year. The area under
pulses stands at 121 lh, down 3.5% on year. However the Tur area is up
marginally by 0.08% at 42.17 lh.
Acreage under coarse cereals is
down 0.30% at 159.46 lh. Maize area is up 0.78% at 73.61 lh. Oilseeds area is
down 0.75% at 163.62 lh. Soybean area is up 0.46% at 111.47 lh. Sugarcane
acreage stands at 52.30 lh, down 5.68% while Cotton area is up 5.57% at 121.58
lh.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by
Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bumper rice and
wheat output pushes grain yield close to 285 million tonnes
Our Bureau New Delhi | Updated
on August 19, 2019 Published
on August 19, 2019
Staples make
up for dip in pulses and coarse cereals
Rice and wheat production in the
country scaled new heights to make up for the dip in pulses and coarse cereals
output and took total foodgrain output in 2018-19 to 284.95 million tonnes
(mt), matching the 285 mt foodgrains produced in the previous year (2017-18),
according to the fourth advance foodgrain estimates released by the Agriculture
Ministry on Monday.
Despite a below-par monsoon, rice
output touched 116.42 mt mt, nearly 3.25 per cent more than the 112.76 mt
produced in 2017-18, while wheat production crossed the three-digit mark for
the first time to achieve 102.19 mt, thanks to a favourable, prolonged winter
Pulses output, on the other hand,
came down to 23.4 mt as compared to 25.42 mt; coarse cereals production, at
42.95 mt, was nearly 8.6 per cent lower than last year.
Oilseeds production was at 32.26
mt, slightly better than the 31.46 mt produced in 2017-18.
Among the pulses crops that took
a major hit last year were tur, whose output was 3.59 mt (4.29 mt last year),
gram 10.13 mt (11.38 mt) and urad whose production was 3.26 mt (3.49 mt).
At 2.35 mt, the production of
moong on the other hand was higher than last year’s 3.03 mt, it said.
The output of all major coarse
cereals in 2018-19 was lower than than in the previous year. While maize output
was 27.23 mt as against 28.75 mt last year, that of bajra was 8.61 mt as
compared to 9.21 mt in 2017-18.
Soya
production up
A substantial increase in
soyabean production in 2018-19 more than covered for the shrinkage in groundnut
output. While soyabean output in 2018-19 was 13.79 mt, as against 10.93 mt
earlier, groundnut yield dropped to 6.7 mt as against 9.25 mt in 2017-18. The
output of rapeseed and mustard too was pretty impressive at 9.34 mt as compared
to 8.43 mt the year before.
Pest infestation, however,
impacted cotton production drastically with output being pegged at 28.71
million bales (one bale is 170 kg) as against 32.81 million bales in 2017-18.
Sugar output on the other hand was 5 per cent higher at 400 mt.
Thailand
Rice Exports Down 30 percent During January1-August 4,2019
Thailand Rice Exports Down 30 percent
During January1-August 4,2019
August 19, 2019 9:23 IST | capital market
As per the latest official sources,
Thailands rice exports (excluding fragrant rice) for July 29 - August 4, 2019,
totaled 63,592 metric tons, down 46,158 metric tons from the previous week and
down 33,911 metric tons from the four weeks moving average of 97,503 metric
tons. Rice exports from January 1 - August 4, 2019, totaled 3,834,111 metric
tons, down 30 percent from the same period last year.
Economic
Buzz: UK CBI Manufacturing Orders Decrease At Slower Pace In August
Economic Buzz: UK CBI Manufacturing Orders
Decrease At Slower Pace In August
August 20, 2019 16:27 IST | capital market
UK manufacturing orders decreased at a
slower pace in August, the Industrial Trends Survey from the Confederation of
British Industry showed Tuesday. The order book balance rose to -13 percent in
August from -34 percent in July. Likewise, the export order book balance
improved to -15 percent from -32 percent. Manufacturers expect to keep output
prices in the next three months broadly unchanged - the lowest balance since
February 2016.
Rainy spells force farmers to idle
fields
1.3
million Arkansas acres are counted as sitting empty by Stephen Steed |
August 18, 2019 at 2:30 a.m.
Arkansas
farmers didn't plant anything this spring on 1.3 million acres -- fifth-most in
the nation -- because of heavy and frequent rainfall and occasional flooding.Last year, "prevented planting" of insured crops in Arkansas amounted to 187,875 acres.
Basmati paddy futures contract launched
Pusa 1121 is
exported to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE
Commodities exchanges NCDEX (National
commodities and derivatives exchange) and ICEX (Indian commodity exchange)
launched basmati paddy futures — Pusa 1121 variety last month, adding one more
commodity to the agri futures.
Kenya launches research on dwindling rice harvests
amid growing demand
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-08-18 19:43:53|Editor: xuxin
NAIROBI, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mercy Nyokabi wades through a
swampy ground trying to chase away a flock of birds having a field day on her
farm in rice growing region of Mwea in Central Kenya.
Nyokabi who inherited the rice farm from her parents, said
dwindling harvests have been her biggest nightmare. She partly blames the birds
but she believes that erratic weather also contributes to the woe.
"The last two years have been the hardest, I barely get a
ton from an acre piece of land yet a few years ago we used to get over 30 tons
from the same piece of land. This area is suitable for rice farming which makes
it hard for us to switch to other crops," said Nyokabi.
Her woes are likely to be eased as Yara, a global fertilizer
manufacturer together with the Kenya's Irrigation Board have commissioned a
research to establish the cause of the declining rice harvests.
The investigations are aimed at finding out the amount of damage
caused by fertilizers and farm chemicals in the rice growing regions.
For instance, Nyokabi still follows the same script her parents
used decades ago which Kefa Maranga, an agronomist with Yara attributes to the
prevailing situation.
"All what the rice growers are complaining about is as a
result of rising soil acidity due to continued use of fertilizers and general
poor farming ethic," said Maranga.
He pointed out that continued use of farm chemicals erodes soil
of some of the crucial nutrients that plants need for growth and maximum
production.
"When crops are starved of this nutrients they tend to
stunt and the few that mature produce poorly which is evident in most of the
farms here in Mwea. Most crops have a yellowish look which is a clear sign of
unhealthy soils, we hope the investigations will lead us to a solution
soon," he added.
Notably, most rice farmers in the region use ammonium-based
fertilizers that also have high amounts of sulphur which acidifies the soil
after continued use for a long time.
"Most fertilizers the farmers use have as high as 24 per
cent of sulphur compared to the required 5.5 per cent. These chemicals have
been piling up in the soil which I think is the greatest threat to the farmers
right now," said Maranga.
Despite Kenya having the capacity to produce enough rice to meet
the current demand, the country relies heavily on imports from Pakistan,
Vietnam, Thailand and India.
Notably, rice is Kenya's third staple food after maize and wheat
and production is estimated at between 33,000 and 50,000 metric tons, while
consumption is between 180,000 and 250,000 tons.
Cameroonians outraged by imported
rice as local rice left unsold
Photos
of many sacks of rice stacked in warehouses in far northern Cameroon were
posted on Facebook in early August. According to the group that posted the
images-- which works for food sovereignty-- this rice was produced in Cameroon
but has never been sold, even though the country imports large quantities of
rice every year. The group called it a "scandalous" situation,
considering the struggles faced by local rice producers.
These photos were taken on August 2 and 3, then posted online on August 5 by Bernard Njonga, the president of a group that works for food sovereignty and other topics, called ACDIC, or the Citizen Association for the Defense of Collective Interests (in French, Association citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts collectifs).
The photos and videos, which have garnered tens of thousands of views, were taken in Yagoua and Maga, where most of Cameroon’s rice is grown. They show locally produced rice stocked in warehouses belonging to a public organisation that supports local rice growers called the Society for the Expansion and Modernisation of Rice-growing in Yagoua (known as SEMRY, the acronym for the French Société d’Expansion et de Modernisation de la Riziculture de Yagoua).
These photos were taken on August 2 and 3, then posted online on August 5 by Bernard Njonga, the president of a group that works for food sovereignty and other topics, called ACDIC, or the Citizen Association for the Defense of Collective Interests (in French, Association citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts collectifs).
The photos and videos, which have garnered tens of thousands of views, were taken in Yagoua and Maga, where most of Cameroon’s rice is grown. They show locally produced rice stocked in warehouses belonging to a public organisation that supports local rice growers called the Society for the Expansion and Modernisation of Rice-growing in Yagoua (known as SEMRY, the acronym for the French Société d’Expansion et de Modernisation de la Riziculture de Yagoua).
"The
SEMRY shops are full of unhusked rice in YAGOUA and Maga (about 160,000 tons).
Some of the stock dates back to 2015", reads the post. "We import and
import rice more and more. More than 800,000 tons in 2017 for a total of more
than 150 billion FCFA."
According to ACDIC president Njonga, who wrote the post, this situation came about because it is more profitable for shopkeepers to buy foreign rice than local rice.
According to ACDIC president Njonga, who wrote the post, this situation came about because it is more profitable for shopkeepers to buy foreign rice than local rice.
"Cameroonian rice producers
don’t get any subsidies"
Bernard
Njonga told the FRANCE 24 Observers team about what he calls a
"scandalous" situation.
When I
went to Yagoua and Maga, I didn’t expect to see so much rice in the warehouses-
especially not rice that has been sitting there unsold since 2015!
Currently,
the cost of producing rice in Cameroon elevated because rice producers don’t
get any subsidies. What's more, transporting a bag of rice between Yagoua and
Yaoundé costs more than if it came from Beijing. So, for shopkeepers, it is
more profitable to buy foreign rice than local rice. So, Cameroonian rice
producers are becoming poorer and poorer.
We think that three things need to be done. First, we need to impose a quota, insuring that local shopkeepers buy a certain percentage of local rice. [Editor’s note: The ACDIC has already launched a petition calling for this.] We also need to provide subsidies to local farmers, and to promote local rice to improve its image.
We think that three things need to be done. First, we need to impose a quota, insuring that local shopkeepers buy a certain percentage of local rice. [Editor’s note: The ACDIC has already launched a petition calling for this.] We also need to provide subsidies to local farmers, and to promote local rice to improve its image.
Nothing
out of the ordinary, according to SEMRY
The FRANCE 24 Observers reached out to the
director general of SEMRY, but he did not respond to our request for comment.
However,
SEMRY did release a statement in response to the post by the president of the
ACDIC, explaining that SEMRY had "started to store rice in its shops in
Maga and Yagoua in 2017", "in preparation for the launch of […] two
new machine lines" purchased by the government to “relaunch the
transformation of paddy rice”. This could explain why there was so much rice
stocked in the SEMRY warehouses.
However,
SEMRY did not respond to the comments made by the ACDIC president about the
difference in price between local rice and foreign rice, and the difficulties
of rice producers.
The
statement by the director general of SEMRY.
"People know that working in the rice
sector isn’t profitable but many do it because they don’t have a choice"
Narcisse
Guybolo, the founder of Agri-Invest, a company that supports farmers
(especially rice producers), spoke the FRANCE 24 Observers team about the
difficulties faced by rice producers in Cameroon.
I think
the main problem is that SEMRY doesn’t support rice farmers as it should. There
are about 100,000 rice producers living in the region around Yagoua and Maga.
Currently, SEMRY rents these farmers just under 27,200 acres of land. SEMRY
takes care of the irrigation of this land but doesn’t give the farmers
information on how to use agricultural inputs or how to access new technology.
Moreover, they have very little training in the commercialization of their
products.
So rice producers buy their own seeds and inputs at a high price and then they don’t use the best techniques and they fall into debt.
People in this region know full well that working in the rice-producing sector isn’t profitable but many of them do it anyway because they don’t have a choice. It does represent the main economic activity in the region.
So rice producers buy their own seeds and inputs at a high price and then they don’t use the best techniques and they fall into debt.
People in this region know full well that working in the rice-producing sector isn’t profitable but many of them do it anyway because they don’t have a choice. It does represent the main economic activity in the region.
"The
export of Cameroonian rice to Nigeria stopped in 2015”
Up until 2015, almost all Cameroonian rice was
sold in Nigeria. But the exports stopped because of an increase in activities
carried out by the terrorist group Boko Haram in the region.
Currently,
the aim is to sell the rice internally. However it remains difficult to get
intermediaries interested in buying and distributing this rice because it
remains cheaper to import rice from abroad.
Changing
temperatures hitting crop yield
Hemanta Pradhan | TNN | Updated: Aug 19, 2019, 17:32
IST
BHUBANESWAR:
It is a known fact that local climate keeps significance for agriculture work.
If it gets affected due to any external factor, crops certainly get damaged or
disturbed. And the climate
change, a major concern in the world, has also created problem for
the productivity of agriculture produces.
Global warming is the major reason behind climate change. Due to this, India and other South Asian countries experience less and erratic rainfall and it leads to drought in some regions.
The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Bhubaneswar has done research regarding impact of climate change on agriculture in the state. Agrometeorologist Anupama Baliarsingh of the university said the state is witnessing a very peculiar thing like less rain in coastal areas and more rains in other districts.
In Odisha, there are instances of flood at one part and drought in other parts of the state. “Due to climate change, state gets more pre-monsoon showers and delays the starting of monsoon rain. State receives less rain in post-monsoon period. Especially, February, June and October months witness less rainfall and its affect agriculture works,” she added.
The professor said overcast sky has become a common phenomenon now. Except July, people experience rise in day and night temperature in other months. The summer season is extended till mid-June. “Yield of crop has been reduced due to rise in day and night temperature. Warm nights in October affects flowering of paddy plants and farmer get less quality rice. Direct seeding of rice (buna dhana) face problem for long summer days and less rainfall in June,” she added.
The OUAT research shows that rise in temperature during winter season will affect winter crops. For example, if temperature increases by 0.5 degree Celsius, wheat yield will be reduced by 1.8 quintal per acre. More rains and flood situation will bring damage to soil quality and crops.
Another major problem is pest attack. The brown plant hopper (BPH) pest, which had damaged paddy crop in western Odisha especially Bargarh district in 2017, grows in the paddy field due to less rainfall and high humidity. It happens due to climate change.
Baliarsingh said sea side land may be submerged by salt water and farmer cannot grow crops like earlier. Agricultural land of coastal areas especially Mahanadi basin may become salty due to the rise in tidal wave.
Himanshu Pathak, director of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack, said global climate change is considerably affecting and will continue to affect the food supply and access through direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, livestock, fisheries and pests.
In western Odisha, Pathak said, some areas include Nuapada, Bhawanipatna and Balangir face less rainfall leading to drought, while other parts get heavy rainfall. “Variation of local climate is not new, but its frequency is increasing due to climate change. We receive so much of rain within a short span of time and then no rain for around 15 or 20 days. This dry spell is dangerous and affect agriculture,” he added.
He said concerted efforts are required for mitigation and adaptation to reduce the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to the adverse impacts of climate change and making it more resilient,” he added.
Global warming is the major reason behind climate change. Due to this, India and other South Asian countries experience less and erratic rainfall and it leads to drought in some regions.
The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Bhubaneswar has done research regarding impact of climate change on agriculture in the state. Agrometeorologist Anupama Baliarsingh of the university said the state is witnessing a very peculiar thing like less rain in coastal areas and more rains in other districts.
In Odisha, there are instances of flood at one part and drought in other parts of the state. “Due to climate change, state gets more pre-monsoon showers and delays the starting of monsoon rain. State receives less rain in post-monsoon period. Especially, February, June and October months witness less rainfall and its affect agriculture works,” she added.
The professor said overcast sky has become a common phenomenon now. Except July, people experience rise in day and night temperature in other months. The summer season is extended till mid-June. “Yield of crop has been reduced due to rise in day and night temperature. Warm nights in October affects flowering of paddy plants and farmer get less quality rice. Direct seeding of rice (buna dhana) face problem for long summer days and less rainfall in June,” she added.
The OUAT research shows that rise in temperature during winter season will affect winter crops. For example, if temperature increases by 0.5 degree Celsius, wheat yield will be reduced by 1.8 quintal per acre. More rains and flood situation will bring damage to soil quality and crops.
Another major problem is pest attack. The brown plant hopper (BPH) pest, which had damaged paddy crop in western Odisha especially Bargarh district in 2017, grows in the paddy field due to less rainfall and high humidity. It happens due to climate change.
Baliarsingh said sea side land may be submerged by salt water and farmer cannot grow crops like earlier. Agricultural land of coastal areas especially Mahanadi basin may become salty due to the rise in tidal wave.
Himanshu Pathak, director of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack, said global climate change is considerably affecting and will continue to affect the food supply and access through direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, livestock, fisheries and pests.
In western Odisha, Pathak said, some areas include Nuapada, Bhawanipatna and Balangir face less rainfall leading to drought, while other parts get heavy rainfall. “Variation of local climate is not new, but its frequency is increasing due to climate change. We receive so much of rain within a short span of time and then no rain for around 15 or 20 days. This dry spell is dangerous and affect agriculture,” he added.
He said concerted efforts are required for mitigation and adaptation to reduce the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to the adverse impacts of climate change and making it more resilient,” he added.
NRRI has developed two rice varieties to withstand the impact of climate change. These varieties, CR Dhan 801 and CR Dhan 802, possess submergence as well as drought tolerance ability. Due to climate change, flood, drought and pests affect the agriculture works. But these unique rice varieties can tolerate submergence of water and drought defying the climate change. Besides, these are resistant to stem borer, leaf folder, plant hoppers and case worm while moderately resistant to bacterial blight, sheath rot and rice tungro virus.
CR Dhan 801 is developed keeping the condition of Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while CR Dhan 802 (renamed as Subhas) is released for Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. These climate-smart varieties can be yield in 140-145 days.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1731987/rice-prices-likely-be-set-at-b10-000-to-b14-000
Jurin
floats rice price insurance
Policy to cover five types of grain, boost farmer income
published : 18 Aug 2019 at 04:00
newspaper section: News
writer: Phusadee Arunmas
old is new again: Democrat leader
and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, middle, poses for a group photo with
party members who gathered yesterday in Bangkok to brainstorm ideas to
strengthen the 73-year-old party.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit has proposed price
insurance for five types of rice, to help farmers deal with the lower price of
crops.
Mr Jurin said the proposal is based on a resolution from a
recent meeting chaired by farmers' representatives, rice trade associations and
state officials.
The collective decision agrees to set conditions on insured
paddies, including its maximum insured amount that will range from 14 to 30
tonnes, and the rate of 15% moisture. However, the rice insurance package will
not cover "short-lived" rice, or rice that is harvested within less
than 100 days of being planted.
"Once the insurance prices are announced, 3.9 million
farmers will benefit from it," Mr Jurin said. The rice insurance policy is
not new. Between 2011 and 2013, the Democrat-led government implemented crop
price insurance and a crop price guarantee.
The rice price insurance scheme offers compensation if market
prices are below the benchmark, said Mr Jurin. Five paddy strains have been
chosen for this year's programme.
They are khao chao, khao hom mali (jasmine rice), khao hom
changwat, khao hom Pathum Thani and khao niao (sticky rice). Under the proposal, farmers will
see the price of khao chao insured at 10,000 baht per tonne, but the insured
rice cannot exceed 30 tonnes per approved case.
Up to 14 tonnes of the khao hom mali will be insured at 15,000
baht per tonne, up to 16 tonnes of the khao hom changwat at 14,000 baht, up to
25 tonnes of khao hom Pathum Thani for 11,000 baht per tonne, and up to 16
tonnes of khao niao (sticky rice) for 12,000 baht per tonne.
The insurance prices will be approved by the National Rice
Policy Committee and then forwarded to the cabinet for final approval before
their announcement, Mr Jurin said. The officials will also launch additional
measures to reduce production costs and prevent excessive supply, he added.
Sompit Aimthong, a farmer in Pathum Thani, welcomed the
insurance package as rice with 25% moisture can only fetch between 6,500 and
7,000 baht per tonne. "If the government sets the insurance price at
10,000 baht per tonne, farmers will survive," she said.The state help is
needed as farming costs are increasing and paddies are also plagued by insects,
said Somnuek Tang-on, another farmer in Pathum Thani.
Govt
keen on maintaining SGM in breaking rice monopoly
Tuesday, August
20th, 2019 at , News
by RAHIMI YUNUS & SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH/ pic
by TMR
THE single gatekeeping mechanism (SGM) remains
a viable option for the management, distribution and import of rice as the
government seeks to safeguard the country from food shocks and volatilities.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister
Datuk Salahuddin Ayub (picture) said the existence of a single
party to safeguard the rice industry would ensure speedier actions in the event
of supply chain disruptions.
“If we are considering food security, the
industry would be better if it is controlled by a single party which practises
a standard operation.
“If anything happens, we can swiftly detect the
root of the problem and prevent it from getting worse,” he told The
Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a recent interview.
There were calls from certain parties for the
government to pull the shutter on the rice monopoly enjoyed by Padiberas
Nasional Bhd (Bernas). They claimed the opening of the sector would allow the
import of cheaper rice.
Bernas, the country’s sole rice importer, fired
back, claiming that other companies may not import the commodity if price
rises to avoid selling the commodity at a loss.
Rice price spiked to about US$1,000 (RM4,130) a
tonne in May 2008 compared to about US$220 in early 2004, for example, sending
many parts of the world on the brink of a food crisis. But rice prices in
Malaysia at that time remained the same due to SGM.
Salahuddin said among the monopoly cases being
discussed, the committee is prioritising the gatekeeper role for the rice
industry as it involves the food security of Malaysians.
“We have to look at the big picture to study
the whole supply chain, its ecosystem and social impact.
“It is easy to be the wholesale importer for
rice, but it is not easy to guard the rice industry and be responsible for the
country’s food security. They have to supervise the stockpile and farming
application of the local farmers, not only rice import,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the government is
considering two models in breaking up the monopolised industry — either
issue an open tender bidding for SGM or establish a new model where multiple
companies are appointed as the gatekeepers.
“We will provide several options and we are
considering opening a tender when Bernas’ concession ends. It would be open to
the best companies who can do as good a job as Bernas, or maybe even better
than that.
“Through this model, we would maintain the SGM.
However, considering the numerous interests in the role by others, we could
open the responsibility to several companies,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the ministry requires six
more months to single out the best options before they can be presented to the
Cabinet for a final decision.
“This is not about being the national rice
importer, it is about safeguarding the rice industry.
“Bernas, for many years, has succeeded in
safeguarding the country’s food security, which is why we have to be very
careful. We don’t want any issues to arise when we break the monopoly.
“We should not rush into this. We need more
time, maybe about six months as the concession ends in January 2021,” he said.
The local rice industry has been solely managed
through the SGM, which was established over 45 years ago.
Bernas, through the mechanism, was appointed as
the guardian for the country’s rice management to prevent a food crisis and be
the buffer in the event of it.
According to reports, Bernas incurred losses of
over RM70 million during the rice crisis between 2008 and 2009 due to higher
import prices, while keeping transacted prices at the lower end.
In addition to its role as the national
importer, the rice company is tasked to safeguard and guarantee the livelihood
of more than 300,000 farmers in the country.
At present, Bernas imports about 700,000 to
800,000 metric tonnes of rice per annum, while the stockpile stands at 150,000
metric tonnes per year.
Govt keen on
maintaining SGM in breaking rice monopoly 
Tuesday, August 20th, 2019 at
, News
Tuesday, August 20th, 2019 at
, News
by RAHIMI YUNUS & SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH/ pic
by TMR
THE single gatekeeping mechanism (SGM) remains
a viable option for the management, distribution and import of rice as the
government seeks to safeguard the country from food shocks and volatilities.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister
Datuk Salahuddin Ayub (picture) said the existence of a single
party to safeguard the rice industry would ensure speedier actions in the event
of supply chain disruptions.
“If we are considering food security, the
industry would be better if it is controlled by a single party which practises
a standard operation.
“If anything happens, we can swiftly detect the
root of the problem and prevent it from getting worse,” he told The
Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a recent interview.
There were calls from certain parties for the
government to pull the shutter on the rice monopoly enjoyed by Padiberas
Nasional Bhd (Bernas). They claimed the opening of the sector would allow the
import of cheaper rice.
Bernas, the country’s sole rice importer, fired
back, claiming that other companies may not import the commodity if price
rises to avoid selling the commodity at a loss.
Rice price spiked to about US$1,000 (RM4,130) a
tonne in May 2008 compared to about US$220 in early 2004, for example, sending
many parts of the world on the brink of a food crisis. But rice prices in
Malaysia at that time remained the same due to SGM.
Salahuddin said among the monopoly cases being
discussed, the committee is prioritising the gatekeeper role for the rice
industry as it involves the food security of Malaysians.
“We have to look at the big picture to study
the whole supply chain, its ecosystem and social impact.
“It is easy to be the wholesale importer for
rice, but it is not easy to guard the rice industry and be responsible for the
country’s food security. They have to supervise the stockpile and farming application
of the local farmers, not only rice import,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the government is
considering two models in breaking up the monopolised industry — either
issue an open tender bidding for SGM or establish a new model where multiple companies
are appointed as the gatekeepers.
“We will provide several options and we are
considering opening a tender when Bernas’ concession ends. It would be open to
the best companies who can do as good a job as Bernas, or maybe even better
than that.
“Through this model, we would maintain the SGM.
However, considering the numerous interests in the role by others, we could
open the responsibility to several companies,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the ministry requires six
more months to single out the best options before they can be presented to the
Cabinet for a final decision.
“This is not about being the national rice
importer, it is about safeguarding the rice industry.
“Bernas, for many years, has succeeded in
safeguarding the country’s food security, which is why we have to be very
careful. We don’t want any issues to arise when we break the monopoly.
“We should not rush into this. We need more
time, maybe about six months as the concession ends in January 2021,” he said.
The local rice industry has been solely managed
through the SGM, which was established over 45 years ago.
Bernas, through the mechanism, was appointed as
the guardian for the country’s rice management to prevent a food crisis and be
the buffer in the event of it.
According to reports, Bernas incurred losses of
over RM70 million during the rice crisis between 2008 and 2009 due to higher
import prices, while keeping transacted prices at the lower end.
In addition to its role as the national
importer, the rice company is tasked to safeguard and guarantee the livelihood
of more than 300,000 farmers in the country.
At present, Bernas imports about 700,000 to
800,000 metric tonnes of rice per annum, while the stockpile stands at 150,000
metric tonnes per year.
Much ado about food import ‘ban’
Trust Nigerians to go into frenzy over issues they had barely
time to digest let alone understand; a lot has been said about the directive
given by President Muhammadu Buhari in the course of his Eid-el-Kabir lunch
with APC governors in Daura last week. The President, we are told, directed the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing foreign exchange for
importation of food into the country, since according to him, agricultural
production has not only steadied, but the country is already inching towards
food security.
“Don’t give a cent to anybody to import food into the country,’’
the president was quoted to have told his guests in a message meant for Central
Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele. He had noted, perhaps for effect,
that some states like Kebbi, Ogun, Lagos, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kano had already
taken advantage of the federal government’s policy on agriculture with huge
returns in rice farming, urging more states to plug into the ongoing revolution
to feed the nation.
For the hyperactive
Nigerian commentariat, it was perhaps time
again to kick dust. Unfortunately, such has been the deliberate muddling of the
semantics that Nigerians are now at a loss as to what to make of it: Is it a
case an outright ‘ban’ of food imports – which seems highly unlikely under the
rules of the World Trade Organisation? Or, as it appears to be the case in this
particular instance, barring food importers from access to foreign exchange–
which though permissible and certainly not without precedent, has proven to be
inefficacious?
And then, there are those who couldn’t care because our dear
president means well for his constituency – the poor masses of this country!
Let’s admit that there are other contributors who not only see
things different but more rationally. Among the latter is Kingsley Moghalu, a
former Deputy Governor of the CBN who not only insists that the president lacks
the power to so direct but was explicit that the Central Bank Act of 2007 makes
clear that the bank “is independent, and not supposed to be taking direct
instructions from politicians.”
IN this category is Bismarck Rewane, the economist and chief
executive of Financial Derivatives who while expressing similar misgivings on
the wider implications of the president’s directive, says Nigerians have
reasons to worry. To quote him as reported by Punch: “Did this policy emanate
from a holistic, cross-pollination of ideas after the rubbing of minds from the
relevant stakeholders such as farmers, food processors, marketers, the Customs
service as well as the Ministry of Agriculture across the country?
While a great number of Nigerians
– certainly excepting the duo – could be forgiven for buying into the muddle,
the presidency appears to be its chief promoter vide its inelegant response to
the Financial
Times report of August 15 on the issue. Nigerians who have not
bothered to read the piece titled Muhammadu Buhari sparks dismay over policy
shift on food imports should Google it to read. Written by its
West Africa correspondent, Neil Munshi, the piece interestingly didn’t say
anything new that highly informed Nigerians have not said about the knee-jerk, cut
and paste, policies of the Buhari administration, the absence
of internal coherence in its policies and plans, the conflation of monetary and
fiscal policies, the systematic derogation of the independence – and I dare add
– integrity – of the apex bank, and most worrisome, the clear absence of the
clear-sighted leadership on the fiscal front.
Stopping short of editorialising, Financial Times actually did
no more catalogue the views of some of those who should ordinarily know – never
mind their role as critics – on these wide-ranging issues.
Take this sample of contribution by Amaka Anku, Africa director
for the Eurasia Group as quoted by the author. Her contention is that the
policy “sent a troubling message for an economy suffering from high
unemployment, low foreign direct investment and sluggish growth”.
Said she: “Most actors, especially the central bank, should know
that a total ban of food imports is not practical and I doubt that will be the
policy”. She also observed that the president’s comments “will continue to
drive home the sense that Buhari has no idea how to manage an economy and will
raise uncertainty about what other [foreign exchange] restrictions are coming,
and contribute to already low business confidence.”
Or Cobus de Hart, chief economist at NKC African Economics who
said that the president’s call for a currency ban raised more “serious
concerns”. The directive, he said, “also cast doubt on Nigeria’s commitment to
a landmark continent-wide trade agreement, which it signed last month after
more than a year of delay”.
As it appears, if the article was guilty of anything, it is for
projecting those critical voices on the issue. To imagine that the
article, which yours truly has read at least twice, could have been so terribly
and perhaps deliberately misunderstood; add to this the needless tiff by
officials that ought to be more reflective and far less sentimental; surely,
these are not normal times and just as has been said by many that our country
Nigeria is not a normal country.
Will the restriction work? Aside being an overused weapon, its
overall efficacy is suspect. Presently, we know the story of rice as indeed
those of the 41 items earlier placed on forex ban. Restrictions or not, trade
in those items continues to flourish. Don’t ask me where they source their
forex from. Trust our officials to live in denial of the stratospheric rise in
rice imports in Benin Republic, Niger and Cameroun; our markets continue to
present the more plausible story of the astounding lacuna and the flawed
assumptions that continues to be our nation’s undoing.
No doubt, the measure by the president was well-intended and
most certainly, the president means well. However, until the administration is
able to come to terms with the fact success will not be measured by the
number of items on the prohibition list or even by the dizzying zillions poured
into ad hoc interventions including the much touted anchor borrowers’
scheme, but in the ability of the administration to create a sustainable
climate for agro-preneurship to thrive, the country will remain on the same
spot.
This is where we need a completely new thinking. Emefiele and
company at the apex bank can only do so much and all within the ambits of the
monetary framework. As it is, Emefiele’s apex bank is increasingly being pushed
to become a jack of all trades. I hope the time will not come when the bank
will be called upon to help secure the borders!
Of course, current times demand strong leadership at the level
of the Economic Management Team. We need this to push refreshingly bold ideas
to get the country working. Put bluntly, an innovative and effective fiscal
strategy is what has been lacking in the last four years. For now, if I
may use a cliché which I am well familiar, a strategy of forex restriction at
this time is at best – a placebo.
Vietnamese
Officials Visit USA Rice to Talk Trade
ARLINGTON, VA -- The president of the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA), Viet Nam's Minister Counselor of Trade from their embassy here, and other staff visited USA Rice earlier this month to discuss developments in rice production and trading activities.
The VFA is an umbrella organization comprised of companies that produce, process, and trade in food products, representing the majority of the country's importers and exporters of rice. Viet Nam is the world's third largest rice exporter. About 5 percent of rice imports into the U.S. come from Viet Nam. The Vietnamese delegation said they have been encountering issues with maximum residue levels (MRLs) when attempting to export rice to the U.S.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nam, president of VFA, saw some potential opportunities for U.S.-grown rice in the region. First, there is opportunity to access the large Chinese market by exporting to Viet Nam first and then on to China. And second, there may be opportunities for direct U.S. rice sales to Viet Nam focused on the high value expat market.
"Viet Nam is such a huge player in the global rice market, it makes sense to meet with them when we can," said Sarah Moran, USA Rice vice president international, who attended the meeting. "We were encouraged to hear their thoughts on expanding our access in the region. Of course, when it comes to expanding their access to our market, we continue to try to reduce rice imports from all sources and advised them that there is no way around food safety issues and the sticky issue of subsidies."
Quote of the Day
"When
hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at
me, but wise men will know what I mean.
- Linji Yixuan
- Linji Yixuan
The True Story of Wild Rice, North America's Most Misunderstood
Grain
The Ojibwe people of northern Minnesota are sustained by the
real wild rice, which they harvest by hand and dry over fire
By Amy
Thielen
Almost all “wild” rice is cultivated, but the real
thing grows freely on the lakes of northern Minnesota.Ackerman
+ Gruber
On a sunny afternoon in the last
days of summer, I broke the first rule I had ever been taught about watercraft
and stood up in a canoe. Mike Magney and Moon Jacobson of the White Earth Band
of Ojibwe had offered to take me out onto Little Elbow Lake and show me
the wild-rice harvest—not
as a past-tense reenactment, we agreed, but in a present-tense this is
how we do it sort of way. So as their canoe shot surely ahead
into a thick stand of rice, I heaved my weight onto a 12-foot-long pole in an
attempt to keep up. The wind took fierce bites out of the water, working
against me. Cotton-batting clouds sped across the blue gel of the sky. The
northern Minnesota wild-rice harvest takes place during a two-week sliver of
September, and the racing wind heightened our urgency.
We were at Sahkahtay, an annual
wild-rice camp hosted by members of the Ojibwe tribe, one of the largest groups
of Indigenous people north of Mexico,
most of whom live in a long arc that stretches from the upper Midwest to
Quebec.
Plunging one
knocker into the rice stand, moon parted the stalks like hair, bending a thick
hank over his lap with one hand and neatly sweeping off its loose seed heads
with the other.
The best way through wild rice is to stand up and pole a canoe.Ackerman
+ Gruber
Jacobson was at the three-day
festival to teach ricing skills to the next generation and to harvest his own
50 pounds—"about half of what my grandma calls a year's supply." He
grew up in Minneapolis but spent a lot of time with his grandmother in
Mahnomen, a nearby town of 1,200. He followed her around, helping her put up
her year's worth of food: harvesting berries, foraging for
medicinal plants, and filling a buried chest freezer in her yard with whole
walleye, which the arctic Minnesota temperatures swiftly preserved to
stiffness.
Magney stood at the back of the
canoe, pushing his pole into the thick chocolate mud of the lake bottom, using
its lever action to propel them across the water. Jacobson sat in the front
with a short wooden stick—called a knocker—in each hand. The stands of rice are
thickest 20 feet from shore, and we rolled into them as if into a darkened
forest of pencil-thin bamboo, the rice seed heads rattling like a dorm-room
bead curtain. Plunging one knocker into the rice stand, Jacobson parted the
stalks like hair, bending a thick hank over his lap with one hand and neatly
sweeping off its loose seed heads with the other. Rice rained down obediently
into the canoe as they moved forward, his poles tapping out a click-click-click rhythm
born of years of repetition.
Wild rice is one of the only
grains native to North America, and definitely its most misunderstood. It is
not directly related to Asian rice. What’s more, the black rice you see in
countless Thanksgiving stuffing recipes every fall is an imposter. Here in
northern Minnesota, at the center of the genetic reserve of wild-rice seedstock,
where it grows naturally in lakes and creeks, we call that black stuff by its
proper name: paddy rice. In the 1960s, the University of Minnesota began
domesticating wild rice. They planted it in rows in flooded paddies, which they
drained to harvest by combine like any other field crop. Ironically,
paddy-grown rice isn’t wild at all.
Real wild rice varies in shape
and color from lake to lake, but once cooked, it is always some shade of
luminescent milky brown—the color of tea spilled onto a saucer. It curls into
loose ringlets that pop delicately between your teeth. It tastes the way a
morning campfire smells: of smoldering wood coals and lake fog at dawn.
I'd been a guest of Sahkahtay as
a curious local once before—I live 20 miles down the road—but this time I was
more attuned to the language of this harvest. Some people there referred to
the grain we were
harvesting—a foundation of Ojibwe culture and ceremony—as manoomin,
"the food that grows on water." No one called it "wild."
Mostly, everyone just called it rice.
We headed to the shore, where a
group was cooking the green rice in a giant cast-iron kettle. Like coffee
beans, wild-rice kernels need to be roasted, or parched, over heat to firm their
tawny core and dry for long-term storage.
Aaron Dewandeler adds logs to his fire.Ackerman
+ Gruber
Jacobson introduced me to Logan
Cloud, an artfully tattooed, soft-voiced 20-something member of the Leech Lake
Band of Ojibwe. While parching rice in an iron kettle over a birch-wood fire,
he described the difference between wild rice and paddy rice in blunt terms:
“Paddy rice is the Western mindset, in edible form,” he said.
The story of how real wild rice
lost its name is a long tale of appropriation—nothing less than one of the
greatest identity thefts in American food history. Its story is braided tightly
into the history of this region, a remote area where the economy, for both
Native peoples and white settlers, has generally been one of subsistence. But
it was the mostly white-owned paddy-rice industry, centered in California, that
pushed to make wild rice a marketable commodity. In the ’70s, wild-rice prices
soared, sending both tribe members and whites out onto the lakes in record
numbers. Money—or at least the prospect of it—drove everyone to excess. People
harvested too early, before the rice had a chance to reseed itself, wiping out
once-flush stands. Tribe leaders moved without consensus to sow spent
reservoirs with seeds from other waterways, wiping out age-old varieties. The
University of Minnesota bred a rice with a thick stem that could handle
mechanical harvesting, without any thought to the way it would cross-pollinate
with the native plants.
Cloud bounced some hot, smoking
rice onto the canoe paddle he was using as a stir stick, and lobbed a few
kernels into his mouth to test for doneness, crunching audibly and spitting out
the hulls. He threw another log onto his fire and described how he knew that
the rice was getting close when it turned the toffee color of Golden Crisp
cereal, “the one with the bear on the box.” He first went ricing at age 9 with
his best friend, a portable radio set up in their canoe, to make some extra
cash to buy the sneakers and jeans that fourth grade required. At his dad’s
backyard rice camp, they parched rice over live fire in a steel drum.
At the point of first colonial
contact, the Ojibwe smoke-dried their rice in birch-bark vessels strung up high
over the fire. Cloud explained that these gave way to kettles sometime after
“the invaders arrived and we realized that we could take something useful from
them.”
Logan Cloud tends to his cast-iron parching kettle.Ackerman
+ Gruber
Cloud moved to a treading pit
lined with birch bark and filled it with about 6 inches of parched rice, then
asked a volunteer in high moccasins to “jig” the rice, to loosen its hulls. She
danced in short, halting steps, light and twisting at the hip. A drummer
hammered out a bass beat, steady and hypnotic, the tempo set to keep the jigger
jigging. Cloud transferred the rice to a shallow birch-bark basket and tossed
it in the wind. This method was surprisingly effective at winnowing away the
hulls, but still, it was hardly a speedy process. By the time it was finished,
every grain of rice had passed through someone’s hands and every stray hull had
been flicked out onto the grass.
Camps like this one anchor
traditional ricing knowledge in the present, but they also function as social
gatherings. Every- one I talk to at Sahkahtay remembers going to rice camps as
children, where they moved through the harvest as if in reverse: first sitting
next to the elders sorting out hulls, jigging as they got older, harvesting and
parching as young adults. The people who come to Sahkahtay want to parch 50 or
60 pounds of rice for their own extended family in the most traditional and
flavorful way, and preserve the social history.
Given that many local Ojibwe now
parch in large steel-drum barrels over wood fires, Cloud’s iron kettle seems
like a throwback. I asked him: In the long history of rice parching, from
birch-bark vessels to the larger barrel parchers used today, why stop here? Why
parch in the iron kettle? He smirked. “Doing it this way is like fixing your
own car.” Then he said, more seriously: “When we began to mechanize the
parching, we started thinking in a colonized way. Processing rice became
easier, but our lives did not get easier.”
As we talked about large-batch
parching, the age-old battle lines drawn between mechanization and handcraft,
science and intuition, we ate wild rice from foam bowls. "Paddy rice is
like chewing on wood chips," he said. "It'll stab your gums."
But his real wild rice, cooked simply and sauced with maple
syrup, fell lightly from my spoon like snow, and melted almost instantly on
my tongue. My small bowlful somehow filled me up. Simultaneous lightness and
heft is one of its gifts.
“If it weren’t
for the rice, Ojibwe culture wouldn’t be here today,” Cloud said, “and if we
lose it, we won’t exist as a people for long. We’ll be done too.”
Cloud, throwing fresh logs under
a batch of green rice, described his small-scale parching in a sensory way. But
his narrative quickly made tracks down the path of his people's history: the
original prophecy that led them to the rice beds; Ojibwe astrology; the
Christian missionaries intent on converting the natives; the boarding schools
that separated children from their families, their language, and their
ceremonies. And he circled back to where we began: the enormous paddy rice
operations that inject science and greed into what should perhaps remain an
intuitive process. "Both the scientist and the preacher, they want to know
everything. They want to remake rice in their image."
Machinery and temperature gauges can break, making you question your own good judgment. And these modern methods can distance you from your culture. "If it weren't for the rice, Ojibwe culture wouldn't be here today," he said, moving a log with his boot, squinting from the glare of the white sun sinking toward the lake. "And if we lose it, we won't exist as a people for long. We'll be done too."
Machinery and temperature gauges can break, making you question your own good judgment. And these modern methods can distance you from your culture. "If it weren't for the rice, Ojibwe culture wouldn't be here today," he said, moving a log with his boot, squinting from the glare of the white sun sinking toward the lake. "And if we lose it, we won't exist as a people for long. We'll be done too."
Even here, where wild rice grows
abundantly, it can be hard to find a bag of the real thing. The grocery stores
stock jet-black paddy rice and, occasionally, a few bags of sturdy,
wood-parched Canadian wild rice. To get my yearly 10 pounds of the soft rice
harvested nearby, I have to rely on my local connections.
A harvester returns from Little Elbow Lake with a sack of wild
rice.Ackerman + Gruber
Twenty miles down the road, in a
parching shed near the town of Ponsford, on the White Earth Reservation, a fat
black iron barrel the size of a commercial propane tank rolled on its spit over
a jumping fire. The thick sweat of rice parching hung in the air, a mixture of
smoke and water and grain. The toasting rice in the barrel exhaled humidity in
quick, short bursts. Like a priest’s swinging censer, it gave off a thick
smudge that rose up to the high crease of the shed’s peak. I’ve been buying
rice from the Dewandeler’s parching operation for years—first from Lewy, now
passed on, then from his son Richard, and now from Lewy’s grandson, Aaron.
Among local wood-parched wild-rice processors, their shed is the cathedral.
They parch in machines they’ve fabricated over the years. A 90-year-old engine
pulled from a Ford Model A powers the huge barrel that spins over the wood
fire. A cylinder painted sky blue houses a flywheel of soft paddles engineered
to gently knock off the loosened hulls. And now Aaron has a new baby: a giant
mechanical separator. It gyrated in the middle of the room, its screen plate
shaking the good, beautiful finished rice to one end and the broken,
undesirable rice to the other.
Three generations of parchers,
and they all judge doneness differently. “You know how you don’t listen to your
parents? My dad wouldn’t listen to his, and I didn’t listen to mine. My
grandpa, he could see the doneness in the smoke, in the blue haze coming off
the hot barrel. My dad can smell when it’s done. Me, I have a laser. And I
taste it.”
Left: Parched
rice must be winnowed—tossed in the wind—to remove its hard outer hull. Right: A
sign directs visitors to wild-rice camp.Ackerman + Gruber
He shot the laser into the rice
to test temperature, then dipped a broom into the barrel, vigorously rubbed
some loose kernels between his hands, and threw the rice into his mouth. Like
most parchers, he can taste which body of water the rice came from. “This is
heavy rice—mostly from Shell and Basswood lakes, but I like small-creek rice
best. The little kernels take on more of the smoke.”
Aaron is white but has a
complicated interface with Native culture common in the area. His kids are
White Earth members; his grandparent’s farm is on the reservation, but only
because the majority of White Earth land has been owned by non-native people
since its inception.
He parches rice very differently
from Logan Cloud, but they have some things in common: a desire to protect the
genetic diversity of local rice, and a hatred for paddy rice—and for sand. Sand
that gets in the rice, whether in the canoe or in the parching shed, is the
enemy. Once it’s in, you can’t get it out. Every chance he gets, Aaron sweeps
his cement floor clean.
He paused when a black Chevy
Tahoe rolled up. “It’s the tribe, here to collect their rice,” he said, and
started heaving the first of 15 burlap sacks toward the door. He loaded 900
pounds of finished rice into the back end, and the Tahoe slumped.
The transaction
has a warm veneer of an illicit thrill, as if we’re buying something that will
get taken away.
Parched rice being winnowed—tossed in the wind—to remove its
hard outer hull.Ackerman + Gruber
Aaron’s operation is as big as it
gets around here. He parches tens of thousands of pounds of rice each fall, all
within three weeks—possibly the limit for a solo operation. He usually sells
out before Thanksgiving.
Two weeks later, Aaron texted me:
“Come get your rice. It’s sitting there making my grandma nervous.” When I
arrived, I found Bette Dewandeler in a housecoat at the kitchen table, sorting
scrap-paper orders, her wit as dry as ever. Once a fixture behind the counter
of the local post office, Bette would send me boxes of rice when I lived in New
York City. As she is recently retired, everyone must now come to her.
As we talked, two trucks pulled
up. My neighbors Adeline and Winnie walked into the kitchen, followed by some
other guys I didn’t recognize, all of them with checkbooks in hand. Here, under
the bright light of Bette’s kitchen, her table piled with plastic bags of rice
and checks and wrinkled magazines, the transaction has the warm veneer of an
illicit thrill, as if we’re buying something that will get taken away.
And it might. While the rice
still grows wild on many local lakes and creeks, clogging up open channels the
first week of September, its future is in question. Climate change and
genetically modified rice threaten the manoomin seedstock. In this area alone,
seven distinct varieties are at risk of being reseeded with hybridized rice,
which ducks move from lake to lake. State wildlife management workers blow up
beaver lodges, interfering with the natural water-level consistency that wild
rice requires. Runoff seeps into the soil, raising sulfide levels above what
this sensitive plant can handle.
The tribes continue to sell and
ship out rice—some of it coming straight from Dewandeler’s parching shed—via
their websites. And yet it feels like the local interest in hand-harvested,
wood-parched rice—the smoky, good stuff—is on the wane. Most small-town gas
stations used to sell a few bags in the fall but rarely continued the practice
when they gave way to national chains. Meanwhile, health-food advocates—the
same people who talk a big game about high-protein organic grains—ignore the
one right under their noses.
But viewed another way, the rice
has returned to the tribes and to the small parchers. It sits where it always
has: in sheds and garages, tightly sheltered in burlap sacks, far from the
masses—perhaps just where it belongs.
Kenya launches research on dwindling rice
harvests amid growing demand
Photo:
Pixabay.
INTERNATIONAL – Mercy Nyokabi wades through a swampy
ground trying to chase away a flock of birds having a field day on her farm in
rice growing region of Mwea in Central Kenya.
Nyokabi who inherited the rice farm from her parents,
said dwindling harvests have been her biggest nightmare. She partly blames the
birds but she believes that erratic weather also contributes to the woe.
"The last two years have been the hardest, I
barely get a ton from an acre piece of land yet a few years ago we used to get
over 30 tons from the same piece of land. This area is suitable for rice
farming which makes it hard for us to switch to other crops," said
Nyokabi.
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Her woes are likely to be eased as Yara, a global
fertilizer manufacturer together with the Kenya's Irrigation Board have
commissioned a research to establish the cause of the declining rice harvests.
The investigations are aimed at finding out the
amount of damage caused by fertilizers and farm chemicals in the rice growing
regions. For instance, Nyokabi still follows the same script her parents used
decades ago which Kefa Maranga, an agronomist with Yara attributes to the
prevailing situation.
"All what the rice growers are complaining about
is as a result of rising soil acidity due to continued use of fertilizers and
general poor farming ethic," said Maranga.
He pointed out that continued use of farm chemicals
erodes soil of some of the crucial nutrients that plants need for growth and
maximum production.
"When crops are starved of this nutrients they
tend to stunt and the few that mature produce poorly which is evident in most
of the farms here in Mwea. Most crops have a yellowish look which is a clear
sign of unhealthy soils, we hope the investigations will lead us to a solution
soon," he added.
Notably, most rice farmers in the region use
ammonium-based fertilizers that also have high amounts of sulphur which
acidifies the soil after continued use for a long time.
"Most fertilizers the farmers use have as high
as 24 per cent of sulphur compared to the required 5.5 per cent. These
chemicals have been piling up in the soil which I think is the greatest threat
to the farmers right now," said Maranga.
Despite Kenya having the capacity to produce enough
rice to meet the current demand, the country relies heavily on imports from
Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and India.
Notably, rice is Kenya's third staple food after
maize and wheat and production is estimated at between 33,000 and 50,000 metric
tons, while consumption is between 180,000 and 250,000 tons.
Rice
prices likely be set at B10,000 to B14,000
Five types of paddy eligible under Democrats' price guarantee
programme
published : 17 Aug 2019 at
19:42
writer: Online Reporters
(Bangkok Post file photo)
Paddy prices may be guaranteed at 10,000 to 14,000 baht a tonne
for rice farmers initially, according to the commerce minister.
Jurin Laksanawisit said on Saturday that a joint meeting of
officials, operators and farmers had agreed to set the prices of five types of
paddy.
The output for each farming household varies by paddy type but
the acreage per household for all five categories must not exceed 40 rai.
Prices of paddy with 15% humidity will be guaranteed at not
lower than 10,000 baht a tonne. Each household can get that price for up to 30
tonnes.
For sticky rice, the price is set at 12,000 baht but with a cap
of 16 tonnes per household.
Hom mail paddy growers can expect at least 15,000 baht a tonne,
capped at 14 tonnes per household.
Fragrant paddy will fetch 14,000 baht a tonne, limited to 16
tonnes, while Pathum Thani paddy will get 11,000 baht, capped at 25 tonnes.
The Democrat Party leader said the prices would be subject to
approval at a Rice Policy Board meeting, which would also set the starting date
of the programme.
"Farmers may have to register with the Agricultural
Extension Department to join the programme. A panel will be set up to set the
benchmark prices every 15 days," he said.
Farmers will be paid through their accounts with Bank for
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, he added.
At the same time, he said, authorities would take steps to
reduce production costs such as those for fertilisers, insecticides and
harvesting fees. Other measures include promoting large-scale farming and the
use of high-quality seeds, as well as buying general insurance for crops.
"Market demand will dictate production. Organic or GAP
[Good Agricultural Practice] rice farming and special breeds will be promoted.
In the long term, growers will be trained to become smart farmers, with the
help of research, development and innovation," said Mr Jurin.
In the short term, urgent measures will be aimed at balancing
the market by delaying sales through loan extensions or interest subsidies for
operators who agree to stockpile the grain, keeping existing export markets and
expanding to new ones.
A price guarantee programme, first introduced during the Abhisit
Vejjajiva government (2008-11), has long been championed by the Democrats. It
was also believed to be one of the conditions the party set for joining the
coalition government.
Under the programme, farmers will be paid only when market
prices are lower than the benchmark prices.Its strong points are that, unlike
the rival Pheu Thai Party's rice-pledging programme, it does not distort market
mechanisms and corruption is generally minimal because the money is deposited
directly to farmers' bank accounts.
One of the disadvantages of the programme is the government gets
nothing in return for using a large budget to cover price differences, compared
to the pledging programme in which rice can be kept for sale at a later date.
Besides, officials have to deal with rampant false claims about
the sizes of rice fields by farmers seeking to be paid more. It also puts
pressure on prices to rise because millers and others who buy the grain
know the government will pay the price differences.
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